Instagram will add video-sharing, according to reports

The photo service won't let Vine have all the micro-video fun.

Vine's six-second-video paradigm may be so good that Instagram and Facebook are about to copy it.

Casey Johnston

TechCrunch is reporting that Instagram and Facebook are planning to start letting users take and share short videos from within the Instagram app. The feature would mimic the functionality of Vine, the embattled video creation app that launched a few months ago.

Matthew Keys reported a few weeks ago that Facebook was testing such a service for Instagram, according to sources who asked not to be named. Testing has apparently been sufficiently successful, and the two companies plan to unveil the new offering at a June 20 event in Menlo Park, CA.

Vine rocked the app ecosystem when it launched at the end of January, giving users an easy way to record and share videos of up to six seconds long. The app debuted under the aegis of Twitter, which bought the service back in October.

Vine initially had some problems with porn sharing, but the service has continued to grow. Recently, it launched an Android app, and reports last week indicated that shares of Vines on Twitter have surpassed those of Instagrams. This may have something to do with the fact that Instagram photos are blocked from being displayed inline on Twitter, which is not the case for Vine videos.

While we’ve seen little more than nominal use of Vine in our day-to-day Internet trawlings, maybe an affiliation with Facebook will bring micro-videos into wider use. That said, we’d hate to see our Instagram feeds cluttered with moving images.

It's interesting to me that people are willing to use so many different mechanisms for largely the same thing. I'm not surprised that one person might prefer Facebook to Twitter, but I am surprised at how many people have all of Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. Seems inconvenient and likely to just open the market for someone to tie it all back into one interface to avoid the annoyance of the splintering.

Vine is starting to create an identify for itself. The app has its glitches, for instance Will Sasso (my favorite Viner) never shows in my main feed. I think if they stay ahead of the curve and make sure the app functions and grows with features then it will be more popular than Instagram with videos. The user base that Instagram attracts just by being associated with creativity will leave Vine (if they even tried it out) if Vine doesn't keep the app running very very smooth for the user. Bad user experience = creative people flocking. I think that regular people (people not overly concerned with what they create) will leave Vine as well if they don't stay fresh with a good interface. They need to remove glitches & keep the comedians that seem to be flourishing on Vine right now.

KC James had a video created on Vine that hit the #1 spot on reddit.com a week ago. That type of comedy would draw my thumb to tapping that Vine icon more-so than the Instagram feed which should have beautiful views. I see myself using both, but definitely being more drawn to Vine.

Vine can mature like Youtube, and instagram video more like Vimeo. Good analogy, bad analogy? Is that even an analogy?

I think the reason we see "little more than nominal use of Vine in our day-to-day Internet trawlings" is because it's nearly impossible to share vines with people outside of the app, and not much easier within the app. And even if you do manage to create an embedded link, the looping doesn't play as smoothly outside of the Vine app, which reduces the impact of some of the most creative vines.

Plus the Android version is worse than beta, plus there are across platforms all kinds of glitches (like likes not showing in the likes feed) and poor design (inability to sort feeds in any way).

Hopefully a competitor leads to these issues being solved sooner rather than later.

maybe im old, but what exactly are you sharing that is 6 seconds long and so important that you need to upload a video?

edit: Hey Whoever downvoted me, can you explain what you are sharing that is 6 seconds long? I dont think im the only one whos curious.

it does not have to be sequential, like a regular video clip. It's a total of max 6 seconds. It can be consisting of 12 0.5 second clips spanning a far longer period of time. Also it can be made to look like a gif which loops perfectly.

maybe im old, but what exactly are you sharing that is 6 seconds long and so important that you need to upload a video?

edit: Hey Whoever downvoted me, can you explain what you are sharing that is 6 seconds long? I dont think im the only one whos curious.

it does not have to be sequential, like a regular video clip. It's a total of max 6 seconds. It can be consisting of 12 0.5 second clips spanning a far longer period of time. Also it can be made to look like a gif which loops perfectly.

ok. that still doesnt tell me what your sharing in .5 second increments. and i can edit video on my tablet so the idea that it doesnt have to be sequential isnt that new.